bark mitzvah n. a (13th birthday) party held for a dog. Editorial Note: Usually jocular. The event itself usually has few, if any, serious religious components and are less coyly known simply as cat mitzvahs and dog mitzvahs. In many cases, the 13th birthday is figured in dog years, usually said to be a ratio of seven dog years for every one human year. Etymological Note: From bark ‘the onomatopoeic sound a dog is said to make’ + bar mitzvah, the Jewish ceremony for a boy’s arrival at the age of manhood and religious responsibility, or bat mitzvah, the equivalent ceremony for a girl. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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Are more and more Jews
celebrating “Bark” Mitzvahs? I’d like to hear
from anyone who has
celebrated this type of
affair.
Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe
Wolfeny@webtv.net